Offering a foreigner's view on Korean TV and movies

Vampire Detective: Vampire Detective(s)

You know you aren’t that special when it seems like everyone else around you have your so-called “special” abilities. That’s what seems to be happening in Vampire. We already know Tae-woo and San are vampires (though Tae-woo and his injured ego may still think San is an innocent human-prey), but Yoo-jin now joins in the “fun” as well.

Although the details are skimpy, Yoo-jin was probably infected by Tae-woo, in exchange for San’s life in the backstory which is (only) now revealed from eps10/11 (and possibly 12). Yunno, for some weird reasons, the female vampires in Vampire somehow aren’t living up to their undead reputations. Yo-na is threatened by Tae-woo and she is clearly afraid of him, not only cos he is withholding her ex-beau hostage, but it seems like she senses that he is more powerful (?) than her. (and why so? given that she was his creator) Tae-woo desires her organization, but the thing is Yo-na’s “Helper” (aka blood “donors”) list is now in San’s hands. And Tae-woo needs it back to run shop. (i dunno if it means Yo-na suspended her bizness in the meantime)

Meanwhile, the infected Yoo-jin is locked up in a spiffy hotel room — guarded by HUMANS (duh?) — as Tae-woo’s prized trophy. Is there some differentiation between a male / female vampire in Vampire? As in the latter is juz as weak as a normal female human? If so, I’d understand why Yoo-jin can’t escape her (very flimsy) confines and juz run to San. Ok, maybe she feels guilty for shooting him, and she wasn’t aware (until now) that he too, is a vampire. So for “his sake”, she chooses to stay away from him. Still, it doesn’t make sense for her to hang around Tae-woo, unless he is still using San’s life as a knife against her throat. (which also doesn’t make sense, since as a vampire, she is more than abled to protect San physically)

I kinda feel sympathetic towards Tae-woo, and his rather misguided ego and devotion to a single girl. It’s kinda funny to think he trains harder and wins more fights against San (while he was still a human police cadet), but end of the day, what he wants isn’t juz Yoo-jin, but San’s acknowledgement that he is the “better guy”. The scene where he discovers Yoo-jin has flown the coop with San, and he sulks on the sofa? I can almost hear him mentally whining “whyyy???” After all, he had to go through all the hoops, bells and whistles to become “stronger” — even to the extent of shooting himself in the head.

And that leads me to the non-vampire detectives, who are mucking up juz as grandly as the vampire ones. Call it a miscomm, call it a lack of comms…but Gu-hyung’s insistence to keep Gyeo-wool “out of danger” by withholding info from her is going to be their undoing. You never, ever tell a woman to “mind her own business”, cos it’s going to work the opposite way. So, instead of working together to save San (not that he really needs saving), Gu-hyung dashes right into Tae-woo’s arm, allowing himself to be held hostage. Which is strange. Cos Gu-hyung definitely knows what and who he is up against. He may not know Tae-woo has turn vampiric, but he does know what San is now, and he likely guesses Yo-na to be non-human too.

So why is he making a beeline straight into the wolf’s lair? I suppose it’s a carryover of the guilt he felt at his earlier project’s failure, and that he indirectly caused San, Yoo-jin and Tae-woo’s lives to drastically change for the worse. Cos he isn’t thinking straight when it comes to protecting San — there’s an element of useless overprotection, when he knows what San is capable of now (as compared to the previously mortally wounded San). Running over in a mad panic to “save” San from the vampires will only impede San and not help him in any ways.